50 years of blooms: Magnolia Garden Club celebrates decades of friendships, projects and memories

A garden club with deep roots in the community celebrates a milestone anniversary this week. For 50 years, friendships have blossomed, community projects have flourished, and members have cultivated their shared love of gardening.

For the past several months – with the anniversary approaching – Lindsay Meakin and other Magnolia Garden Club members have been meticulously compiling a history of the club. Their research has unearthed a treasure trove of memorabilia, from one of the club’s first yearbooks to newspaper clippings, scrapbooks and photographs.

And as they’ve tracked down former members, some now living thousands of miles away, they’ve heard stories about how the club transformed the lives of many of its members as well as the community where they lived.

For Meakin, one of those “unforgettable moments” in her detective work came when she found a woman who joined the club in its early years when her husband came to Gastonia to run a local department store.

“She said she remembered the day they moved in that a neighbor came by with a warm plate of cookies and cold pitcher of lemonade and told her about our garden club,” said Meakin. “She told me that was when she knew she had moved to a place where she belonged.”

This week’s anniversary has brought with it scores of stories like that, memories of garden parties, plant swaps, field trips and, best of all, getting down in the dirt to make things bloom.

A look at the history of the club reveals a great deal about the devotion of its members and the regard they hold for Gastonia.

A CLUB IS BORN: The seed that started it all was planted in October 1964 when Rebecca Garrison, a member of the Garden Club of North Carolina, was asked to help organize the Magnolia Garden Club.

With 20 members, meetings took place on the second Tuesdays of the month with Nell Alala serving as the first president. Notices of meetings were printed in The Gazette as well as summaries of the meetings. Dues were $1, and the first yearbook was a small 4-by-6-inch, dark-green binder that members purchased for $1.79. New pages were provided to be inserted into the notebook each year.

Garden club members quickly organized committees to tackle a variety of tasks from publicity to programming to public projects. One of the club’s first beautification efforts was planting flowers at two of the city limit signs – at Dixie Village in west Gastonia and North New Hope Road.

Over the decades, the club tackled one community project after another, from putting together holiday tray favors for patients at Gaston Memorial Hospital to throwing parties for children at Webb Street School and the Mary Ellen Nelson Center in Dallas. For many years, the club maintained the flower beds at key public spaces in Gastonia such as the Court Drive entry to what is now CaroMont Regional Medical Center. Members were expected to take part in work days and volunteer their time to maintain projects the club took on.

Page 2 of 3 - Two places the club – and other area garden clubs – invested significant time and devotion were Lineberger Park and the Schiele Museum in Gastonia. From flowers to trees and shrubs and benches, Magnolia Club members worked tirelessly on beautification efforts at the park and museum. To make all this possible, they raised all their own money. The history compiled by Meakin is filled with references to rummage sales and other fundraisers. They did everything from selling boxed greeting cards and calendars to holding a craft auctions. The first, a bake sale in front of the Paul Rose Department Store in February 1965, raised $71.70.

Education for both members and the public has been a defining goal of the club. A look at the history shows monthly meetings filled with presentations on topics ranging from growing roses to pesticide-free gardening to attracting butterflies and birds to the garden.

TRIUMPH OVER TRAGEDY: During its history, the club has been touched by tragedy. As it prepared to celebrate its 25th anniversary, three members – Phyllis Seabrook, Diane Myers and Paula Walsh – were killed in a plane crash in June 1989. That devastating shock was followed in September by Hurricane Hugo, which brought widespread damage to the area.

Members quickly showed their mettle. To honor the memories of the three women lost in the crash, they created a Memorial Wildlife Garden, also referred to as the Hummingbird Garden, at the Schiele Museum.

Members channeled their grief into action again in 1992 when member Connie Gibbons – known in the community for her volunteer work – died from cancer. Benches and planters were installed in her memory by the club at the Girl Scouts’ Camp Rotary.

Simply put, members of the club have been there for each other. Brought together by their love of gardening and nature, that bond has grown stronger with time.

It would be hard to calculate the lives that have been touched by the good deeds of the club. Through its charitable outreach in both plantings, goods and donations, the Magnolia Garden Club has helped Webb Street School, Holy Angels, the Robin Johnson House, Cancer Services of Gaston County, the Heart Association of Gaston County, The Shelter of Gaston County, the Animal League of Gaston County and Crisis Assistance Ministries.

And they’ve rolled up their sleeves to help with other public service projects started by other groups including Operation Playground at Martha Rivers Park.

FITTING CELEBRATIONS: This week’s celebration will bring the club full circle when Meakin hosts a coffee Friday for founding members and past presidents at her home on Armstrong Circle in Gastonia. It turns out the first annual meeting was held at the very same home in 1965 when it was owned by founding member Rebecca Garrison and her family.

That same day, the club will host an evening party at the Schiele Museum’s new environmental studies center that boasts a rooftop garden. And it will give members an opportunity to see the museum grounds, which they played a pivotal role in enriching through their gardening skills.

Page 3 of 3 - As the club celebrates its 50th anniversary, Meakin and others say they will continue to work to preserve the club’s history. She’s asked that anyone with information that might be helpful in documenting its past email her at lindsaymeakin@me.com.

Will MacDonald is the community editor for The Gazette. Email him at wmacdonald@gastongazette.com.

MAGNOLIA GARDEN CLUB (Organized in 1964)

CHARTER MEMBERS

Mrs. Joseph B. (Nell) Alala Jr.

Mrs. W. Garland (Bonnie) Atkins

Mrs. Robert L. (Joan) Bradley

Mrs. James S. (Kay) Brown II

Mrs. Alex H. (Sophia) Costas

Mrs. Gus H. (Laura) Costas

Mrs. C. Marshall (Arlene) Dickey

Mrs. Charles L. (Patsy) Ferguson, deceased

Mrs. E.F. (June) Gallagher III

Mrs. Patrick L. (Vivian) Gallagher

Mrs. William F. (Jo) Gray

Mrs. John W. (Barbara) Meadows

Mrs. Fred M. (Kay) Moss Jr.

Mrs. Sam E. (Ann) Pappas

Mrs. P. Keith (Marilyn) Price, deceased

Mrs. O. Claude (Linda) Smith

Mrs. Carl J. (Kathy) Stewart Jr.

Mrs. James S. (Mary Jane) Stewart

Mrs. John G. (Trip) Stewart

Mrs. McAlpin R. (Delores) Thornton

SPONSOR: Mrs. W.B. (Rebecca) Garrison, deceased

IN MEMORIAM

Magnolia Garden Club members have worked to remember these members who have died.